The Reporting of PerPupil Transportation Expenses Under ESSA - PDF document

The Reporting of Per‐Pupil Transportation Expenses Under ESSA Patrick Dean, Dean Transportation Reid Oyster, Apple Bus Company Richard Kelly, National School Transportation Association Stephen Cornman, U.S. Dept. of Ed. Tammy Lehmen, Missouri Dept. of Ed. National School Transportation Association 20190319 | 7317.2 703‐684‐3200 | info@yellowbuses.org | www.yellowbuses.org Evolution of Today’s Topic • NSTA discovered a wide variety of methods to arrive at “school transportation costs” • Search for a uniform standard led to development of NSTA’s School Transportation Cost Analysis Tool • The evolution of ESSA, SLFS, and the Per‐Pupil Transportation Cost Reporting Requirement showed need for guidance from U.S. Dept. of Ed. • Meetings with U.S. Dept. of Ed., Office of State Support • Posting and publication of NSTA School Transportation Cost Analysis Tool National School Transportation Association 20190319 | 7317.2 703‐684‐3200 | info@yellowbuses.org | www.yellowbuses.org Presentation Outline 1. Overview of ESSA, SLFS, and Per‐Pupil Transportation Cost Reporting • Stephen Cornman, U.S. Dept. of Education, NCES 2. Determining the True Cost of School Transportation • Patrick Dean, Dean Transportation, NSTA • Reid Oyster, Apple Bus, NSTA 3. Overview of State Efforts to Report Per‐Pupil Transportation Costs • Tammy Lehmen, Missouri Dept. of Education 4. Questions and Discussion National School Transportation Association 20190319 | 7317.2 703‐684‐3200 | info@yellowbuses.org | www.yellowbuses.org 20190319 | 7317.2 1

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and the School-Level Finance Survey (SLFS) March 18, 2019 Washington, DC Stephen Q. Cornman (NCES), David Gromos, Stephen Wheeler, Osei Ampadu, Laura D’Antonio (Census Bureau), Lei Zhou (Activate Research) Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), as amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), as amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) • The ESEA now requires that per-pupil expenditures be reported on annual State and LEA report cards: “The per-pupil expenditures of Federal, State, and local funds, including actual personnel expenditures and actual nonpersonnel expenditures of Federal, State, and local funds disaggregated by source of funds, for each local education agency and each school in the State for the preceding fiscal year.” §1111(h)(1)(C)(x) and (h)(2)(C) of ESEA, as amended by ESSA t hrough P.L. 114–95, enacted December 10, 2015. 20190319 | 7317.2 2

Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), as amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) • The ESEA also requires that LEA report cards include the same information for the LEA and each school served by the LEA. (ESEA section 1111(h)(2)(C)). ESSA Reporting Timeline • As stated in the June 28, 2017, Dear Colleague Letter, the U.S. Department of Education is giving States and LEAs until the 2018-19 school year to report on annual report cards regarding per-pupil expenditures as described on the previous slide. Expenditures reported pursuant to the ESEA • The ESEA requires reporting of “actual personnel expenditures and actual nonpersonnel expenditures” for public elementary and secondary education. • “Actual personnel expenditures and nonpersonnel expenditures” for public elementary and secondary education may be defined consistently with Current Expenditures on the NPEFS and F-33 surveys. 20190319 | 7317.2 3

Current Expenditures on NPEFS and F-33 • Definition in NPEFS and F-33: “Current expenditures” are expenditures for the day-to-day operation of schools and school districts for public elementary and secondary education. Functions Included Functions Included Excluded (continued) Instruction Instructional staff support Programs outside of services PK-12, e.g. community services Student support services Student transportation Adult education General administration School administration Operation and Other support services (e.g. maintenance of plant business/central services) Food services Enterprise operations Current Expenditures on NPEFS and F-33 Objects included Excluded Expenditures for objects of staff Expenditures associated with salaries and benefits, supplies, and repaying debts and capital outlays purchased services (e.g., purchases of land, school construction, and equipment) Payments to private schools, other LEAs, and charter schools outside of the school district Current Expenditures per Pupil on NPEFS/F-33 • For publication purposes , the equation for current expenditures per pupil for NPEFS and F-33 is: Expenditures per pupil = Current Expenditures _________________ Membership • This equation may also be used for reporting per-pupil expenditures on State and LEA report cards. 20190319 | 7317.2 4

Current Expenditures per Pupil • Although not required by ESSA, the burden in producing current expenditures per pupil for the State and LEA report cards can be greatly reduced if you use the already-existing equation for NPEFS, and F-33. • Single statewide procedure to calculate current expenditures per pupil may be advisable because it makes data uniform, understandable, and comparable across LEAs. Disaggregation of current expenditures based on revenue source on NPEFS & State report cards; on F-33 & LEA cards • NPEFS requests current expenditures based on state/local vs. federal sources of revenue:  Current expenditures paid from state and local funds (CE1)  Current expenditures paid from federal funds (CE2) • F-33 requests current expenditures based on state/local vs. federal sources of revenue:  Current expenditures for elementary-secondary education programs paid from state and local funds (CE1)  Current expenditures for elementary-secondary education programs paid from federal funds (CE2) Current expenditures based on revenues from private sources • On NPEFS and F-33 expenditures from private contributions should be included within expenditure data. • Flexibility may exist on including private contributions in current expenditure per pupil calculations. • An SEA may want to clarify how the state treats current expenditures paid from private sources within its per pupil expenditure reporting procedures. 20190319 | 7317.2 5

Federal funds intended to replace local tax revenues • On NPEFS and F-33, expenditures from Federal funds intended to replace local tax revenues (e.g., Impact Aid, payments in lieu of taxes (PILT)) are included in State and local sources of revenue; and reported in Current Expenditures paid from State and Local Funds (CE1 ). • An SEA may have flexibility with respect to how it treats Federal funds intended to replace local tax revenues. • An SEA may want to clarify how the state treats current expenditures paid from federal funds intended to replace local tax revenues within its per pupil expenditure reporting procedures. School-Level Finance Survey (SLFS) School-Level Finance Survey (SLFS) • SLFS is an extension of two existing collections being conducted by NCES in collaboration with the Census Bureau: the School District Finance Survey (F-33) and the state-level National Public Education Financial Survey (NPEFS). • SLFS is essentially an expansion of F-33 survey to include all current expenditure variables at the school level. 20190319 | 7317.2 6

Why consider participating in SLFS?  Advantages of Participating in SLFS:  Opportunity to work with NCES and Census to reconcile data issues/anomalies  Technical help from NCES and Census Bureau will likely improve data quality at school level  Facilitates compliance with ESSA expenditures per pupil provision  Expands knowledge base States Committed to Participating in SLFS  Alabama  Louisiana  Oklahoma  Arkansas  Maine  Rhode Island  Connecticut  Maryland  South Carolina  Colorado  Michigan  Utah  Florida  Missouri  Wyoming  Georgia  Montana  Hawaii  New Jersey  Indiana  North Carolina  Kentucky  Ohio Pilot School-Level Finance Survey (SLFS) • Pilot SLFS was an experiment! Can school-level finance data be efficiently and effectively collected? • OMB clearance for pilot  Up to 15 SEAs could submit FY 14 data Up to 20 SEAs could submit FY 15 data  • First-year R&D report (based on FY 14 SLFS data) was released in April, 2018  First-year R&D report: https://ies.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2018305 • Second-year R&D report (based on FY 14 and FY 15 SLFS data) is expected to be released in Spring of 2019 20190319 | 7317.2 7